Virus/trojan help...

posiview

posiview

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Andy
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Hi, I picked up a virus/trojan recently and I'm working to resolve the matter.

One thing I've noticed is I can't access my recycle bin or indeed find it in the normal way. I've used Drivespacio to locate it but the recycle bin is now called a '$recycle.bin' and I can't access it. Also my AVG is now called $AVG...

Anyone know what the $ means and how I can get rid of it to enable me to open the recycle bin?

Thanks.
 
First thing I'd do is make new backups on fresh media if you are not up to date. Don't connect existing backups and risk corrupting them.

If it is one of the viruses that hooks in deep you may end up wiping the disk and starting again if the repair software is blocked from installing.

There are online scanners at sites like kaspersky and symantec you could try. Having an AV rescue disk and booting to that is another possibility. Also taking the drive out and connecting it to another computer for scanning might get rid of the virus.

I've done this twice for other people. Once i got it clean, the other time i had to restore a fresh install from backups made to usb drive using an Ubuntu bootable CD to read the drive.

good luck :)
 
gramps said:
Are you sure that would be a good move :thinking:
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it would depend on where the virus was and what it was doing... if it was a boot virus then its not likey to affect it on another PC... Ive done this method before too for a boot up virus....
 
I wouldn't try running any programs on it whilst connected to another PC but scanning it with an up to date AV program can't do any harm.
 
Personally I would never connect an infected drive to a 'clean' PC ... how do you know what it will do unless you have positively identified the virus and its potential?
I second the Kaspersky online scan - before doing anything else.
 
It may well be the case that the trojan, if that is what it is, will prevent you from accessing tools normally used to seek a fix. Both local and online tools. The fact you cannot access avg suggests it is one of the cleverer trojans. Can you access any online tools - such as the Kaspersky scan?

If not, then you have two choices:

a) faff around for days trying to use all the suggestions offered before losing your hair and performing a full format and rebuilt - or

b) Save your sanity and do the rebuild now.

Whatever the route you take, do your backups now, check what backups you already have and start looking for OS and application disks.

Good luck.
 
gramps said:
Personally I would never connect an infected drive to a 'clean' PC ... how do you know what it will do unless you have positively identified the virus and its potential?
I second the Kaspersky online scan - before doing anything else.
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the trojan (there are currently very few viruses in the wild these days) would only be executed from the registry entries on the infected drive or by manually running the program file.

it wont just "jump" systems. as robert says plugging it in to scan it should not do any harm.

and it should be completely salvagable from cleaning utils rather than needing a rebuild.
 
gramps said:
Prefer not to should myself, but each to their own.
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Just had to talk my 19 year old daughter through her first "virus". Told her to use system restore and it did the job nicely. She asked me if having the virus "on her computer" would matter.. Umm.. no, if it isn't ever run, it doesn't matter if it's on your disk... If it's on a non-boot disk plugged into a secondary PC, it won't matter unless it's actually run.
 
neil_g said:
that only happens in hollywood.
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That'll be the same as the ability to do infinite zooms on surveillance cams to read the writing on a Post It... ;) :D
 
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